Engender blog

GUEST POST: New legislation puts gender equality at the heart of the Scottish National Investment Bank

Last week, the Scottish National Investment Bank Bill was passed at Holyrood, and we were delighted to see the culmination of work by ourselves and Close the Gap in securing amendments which integrate women's equality into the Bill. Today we have a guest blog from Ruth Boyle, Policy and Parliamentary Manager at Close the Gap, celebrating success in gendering the Bill and exploring the process of building gender equality into a piece of legislation.

Facilitating
changes in policy can be a slow process, and it’s often very difficult to
measure your impact and success. So, when your advocacy has a clear and
tangible impact, we don’t think it should pass without note!

Over the past few months, Close the Gap has been
working closely with Engender to promote the importance of building gender
equality into the design of the Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB).

Traditionally, economic development agencies have not incorporated women’s specific needs and have not prioritised women’s equality. Consequently, the gender pay gap remains at 13%, and if numbers of women-led businesses in Scotland increased to equal those of men, it would lead to a 5% increase in GDP, equivalent to £7.6bn. We thought the SNIB Bill was a chance to do things differently.

1) An additional ancillary object
relating to equality and non-discrimination;

2) The Bank’s vision statement, which
had been articulated in the Implementation Plan, is now on the face of the Bill
thus giving permanency to the more ambitious and transformational aspects of
the Bank;

3) The mission setting process has been
refined, meaning that Ministers will have to consider how missions will further
equality;

4) The Bank is required to publish and
review a gender equality strategy;

5) The Bank must gather intersectional
gender-disaggregated data on its investments, programmes and services, and
report on its progress against the Gender Equality Strategy; and

6) The Bank is required to carry out a
regular equal pay review.

That the
Bill was changed to include all of these amendments is a big success and will
have positive impact on women’s experiences of working within the Bank, the
Bank’s gender pay gap, and women’s wider social and economic equality in
Scotland.

That the
Bank will be required to carry out a regular equal pay review is a really
positive development for the financial services as a whole, a sector that has been characterised
by unequal pay and large gender pay gaps. Close the Gap research into employer reactions to the pay
gap uncovered employer complacency, with less than a third undertaking an equal
pay review or having any plans to do one in the future. The Bank will not be
able to be complacent about potential discrimination in its pay systems.

This has
been a multi-pronged approach to advocacy that’s seen us write numerous
briefings, respond to three formal Government consultations, meet opposition
MSPs, Cabinet Secretaries, and work with the Bill team. We had the support of
Jackie Baillie MSP, who lodged our amendments and spoke eloquently about the
need for gender equality to be at the heart of the Bill in committee sessions
and in the chamber.

Before the Bill
was even introduced, in line with the recommendation contained within Scotland’s
gender pay gap action plan, A Fairer Scotland for Women, we were working with
Government officials on the equality impact assessment. At stage 1, we provided briefings
to MSPs which outlined our ambitions for the Bill. We also tried to build alliances
across the third sector, working with SCVO and Social Enterprise Scotland to
give a stronger voice to our gender equality messages.

Crucially,
we also achieved verbal commitments for the Cabinet Secretary to work with us
ahead of stage 3 to discuss the opportunities for further amendments. This meant more briefings and meetings ahead of stage 3,
working with various stakeholders to draft robust amendments pertaining to the
gender equality strategy and equal pay reviews. This was difficult because
there was not a precedent for some of our ambitions in pre-existing UK
legislation. For example, lawyers had to establish wording for intersectional
data.

On Tuesday 21st January,
our remaining amendments were agreed in the chamber at stage 3. Encouragingly, we were pleased to see that all
parties supported integrating
women’s equality into SNIB, with three of the amendments passing without a
vote.

Accountability
on gender equality has been built into the Bank. Along with parliamentarians,
Close the Gap and Engender will continue to scrutinise the work of the Bank,
ensuring that they bring forward an ambitious and robust gender equality
strategy. The intersectional gender-disaggregated data which will be gathered
by the Bank will also provide valuable insight into the experiences of
different groups of women in accessing finance and working within financial
institutions.

This piece
of legislation also opens other doors for us in that it sets an important
precedent. In future legislative processes, we can ask ‘if a gender equality
strategy works in the context of the SNIB Act, why not here?’. If the Bank can
carry out regular equal pay reviews, why can’t the other economic development
agencies? With these asks in mind, keep an eye out for our forthcoming Gender
Pay Gap manifesto ahead of the 2021 Scottish Parliament election.

Policy change can be slow and long-term, so we
were delighted to see the Bill pass last week. Now we are looking forward to
working with the Bank to realise the possibilities that have been established
with the passing of this legislation.

Guest posts do not necessarily reflect the views of Engender, and all language used is the author's own. Bloggers have received some editorial support from Engender, and may have received a fee from our commissioning pot. We aim for our blog to reflect a range of feminist viewpoints, and offer a commissioning pot to ensure that women do not have to offer their time or words for free.